32 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a bird that 

 you had never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a difficult 

 task. 



I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former let- 

 ters, a young one and a female with young, both of which I have 

 preserved in brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and manner 

 of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript. 

 They are much smaller, and more slender, than the mus domes- 

 ticus medius of Ray, and have more of the squirrel or dormouse 

 colour. Their belly is white, a straight line along their sides 

 divides the shades of their back and belly. They never enter 

 into houses, are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves, 

 abound in harvest, and build their nests amidst the straws of the 

 corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed 

 as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of 

 the blades of grass or wheat. 



One of these nests I procured this autumn, 

 most artificially platted, and composed of the 

 blades of wheat ; perfectly round, and about 

 the size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture 

 so ingeniously closed, that there was no dis- 

 covering to what part it belonged. It was 

 so compact and well filled, that it would roll 

 across the table without being discomposed, 

 though it contained eight little mice that 

 were naked and blind. As this nest was 

 perfectly full, how could the dam come at her Field Mouse and Nest. 

 litter respectively so as to administer a teat to each ? perhaps she 

 opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again when 

 the business is over ; but she could not possibly be contained 

 herself in the ball with her young, which moreover would be 

 daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, and 

 elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found in a wheat- 

 field suspended in the head of a thistle.* 



A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his servant 

 had shot one last January, in that severe weather, which he be- 

 lieved would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, not 

 knowing what to expect : but, the moment I took it in hand, I 



* Of this pretty little animal, the harvest-mouse (mus messorius), remarkable for its slightly 

 prehensile tail, Mr. White was the discoverer. It is one of the smallest quadrupeds in existence ; 

 and, like the rest of its tribe which inhabit the open country, is in some seasons very much 

 more plentiful than in others. ED. 



